Page 353 of 2288

The third circle with which Anna had ties was preeminently the

fashionable world-the world of balls, of dinners, of sumptuous

dresses, the world that hung on to the court with one hand, so as

to avoid sinking to the level of the demi-monde. For the

demi-monde the members of that fashionable world believed that

they despised, though their tastes were not merely similar, but

in fact identical. Her connection with this circle was kept up

through Princess Betsy Tverskaya, her cousin's wife, who had an

income of a hundred and twenty thousand roubles, and who had

taken a great fancy to Anna ever since she first came out, showed

her much attention, and drew her into her set, making fun of

Countess Lidia Ivanovna's coterie.

"When I'm old and ugly I'll be the same," Betsy used to say; "but

for a pretty young woman like you it's early days for that house

of charity."